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The Internet’s New Muse and Obsession: Nicholas Alexander Chavez

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at NCSU chapter.

The internet always needs a new obsession or fixation to keep everyone occupied. Like clockwork, there’s always an edit of a male celebrity that goes viral. We’ve had the Jacob Elordi Saltburn edit, the Drew Starkey edit, and of course the one that started it all: the Timothee Chalamet “Play Date” edit. Now, we have the Nicholas Chavez edit to add to the collection. If you’re on the same side of TikTok as me, you will know about the new Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story series that dropped on Netflix on September 19th. You will also know about the internet’s newest heartthrob: Nicholas Alexander Chavez. Despite Monsters being under fire for its extreme inaccuracies of the real story of the Menendez brothers, the show is trending for a different reason. The actor who plays Lyle Menendez is all that the internet is gushing over and is being coined the new “boy of the month.” Nicholas has garnered a whole new following and his social media following has been increasing immensely every day. 

So who is this new mysterious man?

Nicholas Alexander Chavez was born on September 6, 1999 in Houston, TX. He stated in an interview that he went to college for 2 years before leaving to pursue his acting career. He moved to Los Angeles and had many random jobs while he submitted audition tapes. He played Spencer Cassadine on the TV show General Hospital. He also plays Father Charlie Mayhew on FX’s Grotesquerie and of course, he is most known for playing Lyle Menendez in Monsters. But other than that, he hasn’t been in much else. I presume for this to change soon as he is now being discovered and proved himself to be a very talented actor in Monsters. 

Does Chavez have any awards or accolades?

Nicholas won “Favorite Newcomer” for the Soap Hub Awards in 2021 and then in 2022 he won a Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Younger Performer in a Drama Series.” Both of these awards were for his role in General Hospital. Hopefully, for his outstanding performance in Monsters, he will win some more awards. 

Is Monsters worth the watch?

If you haven’t seen Monsters yet and are wondering if it’s worth the watch, I would say yes solely because the acting jobs done by everyone in the cast are phenomenal and it is a good show only if you separate it from the real story. There were a few instances where I was outraged by the way the real brothers were portrayed. Ryan Murphy, the creator, has had a track record of being controversial. The first season of Monsters was the story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer which garnered a lot of controversial reviews. This was because the families of the victims that Dahmer brutally murdered were not made aware of the show before it came out and stated that they would have never consented to it due to the amount of trauma it uprooted for them. Now, with the Lyle and Erik Menendez story, Murphy is under fire because of how he depicted the real brothers. He portrayed Erik Menendez as gay in the show even though he stated in real life that he was not gay. He portrayed Lyle as a spoiled brat with anger issues even though there is no evidence to prove he acted like that in real life. Many of his friends and family said he was the opposite of that. He also portrayed the brothers as having a relationship together which is also not true and was just a theory at the time. There were plenty of other inaccuracies to which Erik Menendez’s wife, Tammi, released a statement going against the show and saying it was a “disgrace.” It’s very sad and disheartening to see how the brothers endured so much physical and mental abuse from their parents for their whole lives and they still have to deal with mockery while they serve out their life sentences. Murphy argued that he wanted to show all points of view and theories of the time about the brothers but many people are saying that he made them seem more like the monsters rather than the parents.

Overall, I feel like the show could have been much better if it was done more accurately. The best thing that the show has done was that it got people to discuss the case more. Because of all the buzz surrounding the show, the California district attorney is looking into the case and new evidence to see if the Menendez brothers could possibly receive a new sentence. Also, the series catapulted Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch’s careers.

How do you feel about the series and all of the Nicholas Chavez edits on TikTok?

Alexa is a junior at North Carolina State and this is her first semester as a part of Her Campus. She grew up in New Jersey and often goes to New York. She loves writing and decided to join Her Campus as a way to express her interests. She loves to write about music, fashion, TV shows/movies, true crime, and pop culture. She is studying Criminology with a minor in forensic science and hopes to pursue a career in CSI. She is also a part of CHAARG (a women's workout group), the criminology club, and the forensic science club at NCSU. In her free time, she loves to go on runs, do pilates, read, listen to music, hang out with friends & family, play guitar, and watch TV.